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The Japanese rocket sets fire and threatens the space calendar

November 26, 2024August 14, 2025

Epsilon s Rocket suffer from fire in Japan, delaying his launch program and affecting the space program

Rocket launch — The H2A rocket was launched from the space center of Tantegashima Island, where the incident with the Epsilon rocket took place on Tuesday (26). (Image: Bluenine / Shutterstock.com)

The Japan’s space program suffered a new mishap on Tuesday (26) with an incident involved in the light rocket Epsilon S. During a ground test held at the Tantegashima space center in the province of Kagoshima, a fire was recorded 49 seconds after the start of the procedure.

Failure, attributed to a problem with the engine of the second stage, proposed concerns about the future of the project. This is the second unsuccessful Epsilon test, which had already faced similar problems last year. The incident also had a financial impact, with a fall in the actions of one of the companies responsible for the rocket.

jax — JAX, Japanese Space Agency, suffered a blow with the fire of Epsilon S. Fire (Image: Oasis2me / Shutterstock.com)

Epsilon sown rockets Failure

The fire caused large clouds of smoke, as shown in a live broadcast of the Japanese national station.
Despite the severity of the incident, the Japan Aerospace Agency (JAX) reported that there were no injuries and that the causes are still being investigated.
The impact on the market was immediate: the shares of Ihi Corp., which develops the rocket in collaboration with JAX, fell to 7% at the beginning of the negotiations on Tuesday, according to Bloomberg.

Impact on launching programming

The Epsilon rocket was scheduled to launch in March 2025. However, the repetition of the test failures are jeopardized by the project calendar, which has previously suffered postponement.

The initiative is part of the JAX efforts to increase the frequency of rockets in Japan. In addition to Epsilon S, the agency also developed H3, a great rocket that made its first release in February this year.

Rocket Epsilon — Launch of another Epsilon Japanese rocket. (Image: Ymzk-Photo / Chutterstock.com)

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